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published: Sunday, November 01, 2009

A spook-tacular vocabulary lesson

Special to the News-Sun

LAKE PLACID -- Who said learning new vocabulary had to be boring? Certainly not the students at Lake Country Elementary.

On Friday, the faculty and students at the school celebrated Halloween in a unique way. In an effort to both celebrate and develop broader vocabulary skills in their students, the staff and children were challenged to choose a higher-level vocabulary word to describe their Halloween costume.

Parents were encouraged to become involved in the Vocabulary Challenge as well, working with their children at home exploring new words together.

On Friday morning, children excitedly arrived at school dressed in a wide array of costumes, from the very detailed to the very simple. However, in an effort for all children to be involved in the parade, elaborate costuming was not needed. The Halloween parade's focus was not on the costume, rather than the words the children chose to describe how they looked.

Some children came "as is" and illustrated their word through facial expressions and body language, such as exhausted, suspicious, or bedraggled. All students displayed their selected word, by wearing a specially designed vocabulary card.

The parade was kicked off at 9 a.m. by kindergartners and first-graders. While parents and visitors watched, their little ones paraded around the school holding up their robust vocabulary word cards which described their adorable costumes.

Their words were more age appropriate with examples being princess, heroic, beautiful, handsome, cheerful, brave, frightening and charming.

Second- through fifth-graders continued the parade in the P.E. area. Vintage, tenacious, courageous, spectacular, grandiose, atrocious, appalling, extravagant and flamboyant were just some of the words that students choose to describe their outfits.

The Lake Country teachers and staff appreciate the enthusiasm shared by the many visitors and parents alike and said they are "delighted with their support in helping our students understand the significance of a well-developed vocabulary."